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Geoffrey Orbell was the man who rediscovered the takahe, a bird of near-mythical rarity. Confined to New Zealand, it is a kind of giant flightless moorhen armed with a massive red bill and was declared "probably extinct" in 1930. Orbell became fascinated by the bird and spent weekends and holidays tramping the mountain range near where part of The Lord of the Rings was shot in search of it. In 1948 "a large blue-green bird stepped out from among the snow tussock" and Orbell made ornithological history. - The Independent